Judy Meisel wants the judges to know what to expect from the trial of Johann R. From the lawsuit against the man, who admits to having served in the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdańsk as an SS guard, but does not want to hear about the mass murder. The 89-year-old is not in the room herself. But right on the first day of the trial before the district court in Münster, Judy Meisel has her lawyer Cornelius Nestler read a statement.
"Stutthof, that was the organized mass murder by the SS, made possible with the help of the guards," says Judy Meisel. "The defendant, along with other guards, made sure that no one could escape from hell, made sure my mother could be murdered, and almost succeeded in causing me to be murdered." For them, this criminal case means justice, "and it brings late justice for my murdered mother."
Judy Meisel survived the Stutthof concentration camp, she survived the Holocaust. Her mother died in November 1944 in the gas chamber in Stutthof. Judy Meisel was 15 years old at the time. Now she is a co-plaintiff in one of the most recent lawsuits about the crimes of the Nazi era. The trip from her place of residence Minneapolis in the USA to Münster is no longer possible for the 89-year-old.
Johann R. hears the words Meisels, carried by her lawyer, over headphones. He is charged with murder aiding in hundreds of cases.
Just a breath
As R. is pushed in the morning in a wheelchair by a judicial officer in the hall, all conversations become silent. Everyone looks at the old man in a hat and coat, who lifts his left arm with great effort to ward off the photographers. With a trembling hand he takes off his hat on the dock, puts on his glasses. His hair is disheveled. The answers to the questions of the court to his person, he breathes more than he speaks.
Johann R. lives in the district of Borken in Westmünsterland. He was born in 1923 in Romania, father of three children, divorced. In just over two weeks, he will be 95. Nevertheless, before the juvenile punishment chamber under the chairmanship of Judge Rainer Brackhane negotiated, because the murder allegation R. should have committed at the age of 18 to 20 years. He is thus legally considered as an adolescent, who can be sentenced to juvenile justice.
According to the indictment, Johann R. was transferred to the Stutthof concentration camp on 7 June 1942. He is said to have been responsible there until September 1, 1944 as a member of the 3rd Company of the SS-Totenkopfsturmbanns for the guarding of the camp and the supervision of the labor commands outside the camp, last in the rank of SS-Sturmmannes. According to the indictment, he has contributed to the murder through his activities.
Attorney General Andreas Brendel names, among other things, the summer of 1944, when more than 100 Polish prisoners and at least 77 Soviet prisoners of war died in gas chambers. Hundreds of Jews were killed in gas at Stutthof or shot by SS men. Others were starved to death, beaten to death, chased into the electric fence, injected with gas, frozen.
Brendel counts one cruelty after the other in the indictment. Judy Meisel speaks simply of "hell" in her statement. The people in the hall can only guess what horror hides behind the word. Johann R. could know.
Prosecutors do not assume that he murdered himself. But by his guard services, he had contributed to the functioning of the murder machine. The prosecution assumes that Johann R. knew and wanted what happened in the Stutthof concentration camp.
And again, there will be the question: Does a 95-year-old still belong to the dock? Does it have to be that way? The answer is yes. Murder does not expire, murder does not.
"You can do justice after 70 years and find a verdict, you have to do it", said in Lüneburg the presiding judge in the verdict against Oskar Gröning, the so-called accountant of Auschwitz. The then 94-year-old Gröning was sentenced in 2015 to four years in prison for assisting the murder in hundreds of thousands of cases. The Federal Court of Justice confirmed the judgment. Groening died before he had to go to prison. Three years after the Lüneburger judgment the words of the presiding judge are still valid. "You have to do it."
"Unimaginable crime"
Like Groening, Johann R. hears and understands what happens in court. He is able to negotiate, albeit restricted. A maximum of two hours a day and two days a week is negotiated in Münster. More do not allow the health of the accused, said physicians. The first day of the trial ends after one hour.
The 17 survivors and relatives from Israel, Canada and the US, who are co-plaintiffs in the process and are represented by eleven lawyers, are not concerned with the highest possible punishment for the accused. Judy Meisel wants Johann R. to take responsibility for "helping him with this unimaginable crime against humanity, helping to murder my beloved mother."
The defenders Andrea Tinkl and Jürgen Föcking have announced a statement from their client. But when exactly Johann R. will talk about his time as an SS man in the concentration camp Stutthof is unclear. You want to wait until a legal historical report on the conditions in Stutthof, which is not yet available.
The process should be continued on Thursday.